This robot rocks! After N.H. awards, Maine competition next for Dover High School team

By Andrea Bulfinch

abulfinch@fosters.com

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

DOVER — They may be rookies in the engineering arena, but Team 4546 Shockwave, a robotics team from Dover High School and the Career Technical Center, took two awards at the BAE Systems Granite State Regional competition held in Manchester recently.

Taking the Highest Rookie Seed award and the Rookie Inspiration Award, this newly formed team came away with not just the recognition, but camaraderie and a sense of excitement from working together on a robot, NORM, built to competition criteria and for loading flying discs and dropping them into a designated “goal” area.

“We learned a lot from this competition,” Elliot Codd, chief engineer of the team, said.

Codd is a junior and takes engineering courses offered at the high school.

For their robot, they were given a kit of basic parts and criteria of size, weight and cost and set off to build a robot “that could do as much as possible.”

Trainor is a senior and loves the team for the friendships it has brought her as well as the education and experience, she said.

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Courtesy photo
The Dover High School Robotics Team poses during the recent BAE Systems Granite State Regional FIRST Robotics Competition in Manchester.

“I'm sure we drive each other crazy, but we still are focused on our goal,” she said.

Merv Faulkner, DHS chemistry teacher and coach of the team, said he received a thank-you letter from one of the mentors helping to guide the team and thought it was wonderful but strange since he considers himself privileged to be able to coach such bright, young engineers, many of whom are on the honor and high honor roll.

“I wouldn't miss it for the world,” he said.

The team also has to come up with its own funding, whether raising the money to build the robot or finding and applying for grants to do so.

Next, the team will take robot NORM to Lewiston, Maine, for the Pine Tree State Regionals competition. Until then, the group of about 20 students cannot touch the creation or even take out of the plastic bag in which it's stored.

They had only 45 days to build NORM and it won't be until their next competition that they can make any improvements.

Safety manager Samuel Wood, a junior, said the team has done the rough math and figures they spent about 15 days straight as a team at the high school in Faulkner's chemistry room working on their robot.

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Courtesy photo
The Dover High School Robotics Team works on their robot NORM during the recent BAE Systems Granite State Regional FIRST Robotics Competition in Manchester.

One of the main priorities, Faulkner said, is that everyone puts safety first as they work.

Faulkner is new to the idea of a robotics team himself.

“I had no clue what was involved,” he said.

Codd said he had been trying to get the team off the ground for a couple years and is glad there were others who wanted the same type of group he did.

Though the formation of Team 4546 Shockwave, team open to all grades, is recent, he knew what it would take to build an effective robot.

“The best robot is the simplest robot,” he said.

He also wasn't surprised by the amount of work that has gone into the creation of NORM.

“One of the biggest things you hear going into this is it's the hardest fun you'll ever have, he said.

To be on the robotics team students must maintain a “C” average or better, similar to how things operate academically for athletes at the school.

Rick Cecchetti, a mentor for the team who works as an engineering recruiter at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, said he was most impressed with how the team worked together and matured during their competition in Manchester.

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John Huff/Staff photographer
Seniors and team captains Elliot Codd and Dani Trainor show off the Dover High School Robotics Team’s robot NORM, which must remain wrapped in plastic due to competition rules for their upcoming the Pine Tree Regional FIRST Competition. The team won several awards in the recent BAE Systems Granite State Regional FIRST Robotics Competition.

“It was really fun to watch,” he said. “It was an event.”

He heads a group at the Dover Middle School building sea perches, remote-operated underwater vehicles. A handful of team members at the high school had also been in that group.

On Monday, the team worked together to brainstorm problem-solving techniques after school.

“Its really a pleasure to work with them,” Faulkner said.

On April 4, 5, and 6 members of Team 4546 Shockwave will head to Lewiston with NORM in tow in hopes of making a name for themselves in the next chapter of competitions.